Hotel Tonight’s upcoming feature will use smartphone as room key

Hotels have been slowly shifting to accommodate our mobile world — CitizenM is a prime example — and with the Hotel Tonight app, Android users are poised to gain two exceptionally handy features: the ability to skip in-person check-ins, and to use one’s smartphone as a room key, avoiding those pesky magnetized cards altogether.

Hotel Tonight is a mobile service that caters to last-minute travelers, allowing those without accommodation to find a hotel room with little notice. It boasts several perks for users — 10-second bookings, budget-friendly rates, and the ability to stay at a place for up to five days.

It is the app’s newest two inbound features that are most notable, however. Express Check-In will allow those who rent a room through the service to check-in digitally after receiving a notification that their room is ready. The feature is presently being used under a pilot program with some hotels on the iPhone app, and will be coming to Android “in the coming weeks”.

The Keyless Entry feature, meanwhile, will allow customers to unlock their hotel rooms using the app. The smartphone will need NFC, and will function as a room key when held up to the door lock. Hotel Tonight says it is in talks now with “several global hotel chains” to launch the feature.